Reflection on Web Curation

This is not my first blog, in fact this is my fourth, but this is my first time doing a blog that purely curates previously produced material on the web and, honestly, I did not really enjoy it that much.  I just find that creating and reporting on content that is generated by you is so much more interesting, challenging and rewarding.

With that said, it is not that I don’t think content curation is important.  According to Mashable/Social Media, content curation is a more advanced solution to search engines.  Instead of using keywords to survey the entire web, a user is able to simply navigate to a curation blog they are interested in and find links that apply directly to what they are looking for.

The use of sites like this is obviously necessary in the current age of “content abundance,” but how far is to far?  I’ve found self-generated aticles I’ve written and photos I’ve taken on the web without my name being mentioned anywhere.  Sometimes I’ve even found my photos used on sites with ads meaning that they are essentially making money off of work I have done.  Content curation is useful and important, but sometimes it goes way too far.

The Mashable article states that, “Curation is not a part of the content creation, it doesn’t kill anything, rather it adds a powerful new tool that will make content destinations more relevant…”  While I agree that curation can be a tool, it can also be a creativity killing weapon.  The fact is, it is just easier to find information that is already out on the web and republish it then it is to create new content.  Curation can be monetarily succesful and it seems to me that we are in danger of many curators benefitted from the work of a few creators who may not be as succesful financially.

Content curation is here to stay, there is no denying that, but we need to find a way to make sure the content creators are still benefitting from their labors.